


First Day

by kaianieves



Series: Wayward Med [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hospital, F/F, Medical Procedures, Nothing Changed Except Patience is a Medical Student Now, medical student
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-01
Updated: 2020-02-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:02:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22505254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaianieves/pseuds/kaianieves
Summary: "You know what, forget it." He turned away from her. "Turner! Where are you?" A tall, thin black woman in an embroidered lab coat approached the room. "This patient needs five milligrams of nitroglycerin. Make sure to dilute it with point nine sodium chloride or you’ll actually kill him," he said, glaring at Alex."Yes, Dr. Guerrera," Dr. Turner said. Well, student doctor Turner, as her lab coat said. Alex had found the med student alright. She was doing her job for her.-Alex works a night shift. There's a new med student in the Emergency Department.
Relationships: Alex Jones & Claire Novak, Alex Jones & Patience Turner, Alex Jones/Patience Turner
Series: Wayward Med [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1619257
Comments: 4
Kudos: 7





	First Day

**Author's Note:**

> This is completely self indulgent. I watched a lot of medical dramas while studying for exams and thought this would be fun. Obviously not all of it's correct, I think that goes without saying, but I did do some light searching to get the dosages and functions of things ~fairly~ correct.
> 
> Also some IRL friends have my AO3 now, so if you're reading this, hello.

"How you doing, Jones?" Alex opened up her locker in the staff room lounge at the same time as Annie, shoving her bag in while her coworker pulled hers out.

"Obviously could be better," she said.

"Nights are always a killer, you know that," Annie said. She was right, Alex did know that. Why she had agreed to cover Tara Stanfield, a nurse that she didn't even like, so she could go to some Superbowl Sunday event escaped her. And yet, here she was.

"Where are you headed?" Alex asked.

"Hopefully straight home into a freshly made bed. My kid's with his dad tonight so it will be uninterrupted sleep for me," Annie said.

"Nice. Wish I could say the same."

"That sister of yours is always causing some sort of noise, huh?"

"Something like that," Alex said.

"Well, tell Jody I say hi. Haven't seen her around here lately."

"Shouldn't that be considered a good thing?" Alex asked. Annie smiled. "Oh, who's working tonight?"

"Guerrera's on attending, Jackson's on staff. You sure you don't have some sort of hex over you?"

"Wouldn't be surprised," Alex said. She reached into her bag, clipping her hospital ID to her scrub shirt pocket.

"Oh, and there's a new student. Third year, doe-eyed as all hell," Annie said.

"So don't take it easy on her then?" Alex asked.

"You know it." She closed her locker, sticking a piece of gum in her mouth. "I wish you the best of luck."

"Uh huh. See you in twelve hours," Alex said.

"It's a date!" Annie said. Then she turned away, heading for the door that lead to the elevator. Alex went the other way, towards the door that lead onto the unit.

Things seemed fairly calm for an emergency department. Doris Jackson eyed Alex as she made her way to the staffing desk. "Evening, Doris."

"Nurse Jones," she said politely. "I didn't know you were in tonight."

"I made a switch." An unfortunate one at that.

"Ah, I see." Before Doris could say anything else, Alex's pager buzzed on her hip. The two of them turned to face the entrance to the ED. Paramedics rushed in moments later, a patient strapped to a gurney along with them. Doris pointed them to Trauma 2. Alex made her way over.

"Talk to me," Dr. Guerrera said.

"Unidentified male called 911 by himself, distressed. When we got there he was slipping in and out of consciousness, probably from the pain. Blood pressure's 131 over 82, heart rate at 110. Found him off of Bear Valley Trail, probably took a hike. We’re thinking aortic dissection," the paramedic said.

"His belly’s almost as hard as rock. The blood’s pooling," Alex said. She stretched a pair of latex gloves over her hands.

"Alright, transfer on my count. One, two, three."

Alex, Dr. Guerrera and the two paramedics heaved the stretcher onto the bed, unstrapping the victim quickly so Alex could cut away his shirt. He started to groan in pain.

"Sir, can you tell me your name? I'm Nurse Jones, you were found out on a hiking trail all alone."

"Jones, check the pockets for ID," Dr. Guerrera said. She did, patting down his jeans until she felt a lump of a wallet in one of them. She pulled it out, looking for a driver's license.

"Doug Stover from Duluth, Minnesota," Alex said. Behind a credit card and a business card for a security company was something else. A police business card. "He's a cop."

Dr. Guerrera only glanced at her as he continued working. The paramedics moved away from the bed, giving him more space. "His blood pressure's spiking," he said. "Nurse Jones, give him ten CC's of esmolol."

"If he's hypertensive then it'll only increase his chances of dying. Mortality’s already at 30 percent," Alex said.

"Fine, twenty milligrams of labetalol through his IV, increase it after three minutes if his BP doesn’t start dropping. Don't go over 300."

She injected the labetalol into the IV. "I'll page the OR, he's going to need to be up there as soon as possible."

"Not necessarily. We need to figure out if it's a Type A or B dissection."

"You want to risk his life over semantics?" Alex asked.

"Do you want to put him through a potentially needless invasive surgery?" Dr. Guerrera asked. "You know what, forget it." He turned away from her. "Turner! Where are you?"

A tall, thin woman in an embroidered lab coat approached the room. "This patient needs five milligrams of nitroglycerin. Make sure to dilute it with point nine sodium chloride or you’ll  _ actually _ kill him," he said, glaring at Alex.

"Yes, Dr. Guerrera," Dr. Turner said. Well, student doctor Turner, as her lab coat said. Alex had found the med student alright. She was doing her job for her.

Alex rolled her eyes, whipping off her gloves and tossing them into the bio-waste bin.

"Dr. Guerrera, we're ready for an x-ray," Dr. Turner said.

He pulled down the scanner, leaving Mr. Stover on his back. "X-ray, clear," he called. The machine made a noise, a scan popping up on a monitor moments later. "Dr. Turner, what do you see?"

She looked at the scan closely, squinting her eyes a little. "It looks like an ascending aortic dissection."

"And for that what do you do?" Dr. Guerrera asked.

"Surgery to repair the area of the artery that's damaged," Alex answered for her. "It looks like there's valve damage, too."

"What she said," Dr. Turner said.

"I'll page the OR, then," Alex said again, this time with a pointed look in Dr. Guerrera’s direction.

They took Doug Stover up to the OR minutes later, Alex walking away from the trauma room already dreading the night ahead of her.

“Nurse Jones?” Dr. Turner asked.

“Yeah?”

“Uh, I just wanted to introduce myself. I’m Patience. Third year med student.”

“Alex. It’s good to meet you,” she said.

“Yeah, you too. And I’m sorry, for back there. I’ve only been here a few days but I can already tell Dr. Guerrera’s a little demanding. Just trying to--”

“Appease so your life is easier? I get it. Don’t worry about it,” Alex said. “So is this your first placement?”

“Fourth, actually. Half way through the school year and all,” Patience said. “Before I was up in pediatrics, and before that family medicine then obstetrics. And in another six weeks, I’m off to pathology.”

“They’ve got you guys everywhere,” Alex said.

“Pretty much.”

“Anywhere you like the most so far?”

“Pediatrics is definitely my favourite so far. Kids are great. I’m hoping I’ll like emergency medicine, though,” Patience said. “I think I do. I mean, I’ve never done that before.” She nodded over to Trauma 2, where Dr. Guerrera stood with Doris, a clipboard in his hands.

“I think you might.” Guilt was starting to set in. Alex had set out with the intentions of being mean to her for what reason? ‘Cause she was a student. A stupid reason. “Hey, you know what? I think if we head up now we can catch Mr. Stover’s surgery.”

“Is that like a thing?” Patience asked.

“Well you might be doing it one day. Always good to observe.”

They got onto the elevator up to the OR, bypassing main doors to get into the operating theater unnoticed.

“That’s Dr. Wiley. Best thoracic surgeon this side of South Dakota,” Alex said.

“Now I think you’re just kissing my ass,” someone said. It came from a speaker on the wall. Dr. Wiley took a moment to glance back at the wide glass window looking into the operating room, acknowledging Patience and Alex’s presence. “Nurse Jones. I see you brought an extern with you,” she said.

“She’s working in the ED for her placement. This is our patient. Thought I’d show her how a professional operates,” Alex said.

“You have plenty of professionals down in the ED,” Dr. Wiley said. Her tone said otherwise. “You should be glad you got this patient up here when you did. Any more time and he’d be gone. Who made the diagnosis?”

“Dr. Turner here did,” Alex said. Patience gave her a confused look, but she only nodded.

“Well congratulations Dr. Turner. You’ve just saved your first life,” Dr. Wiley said.

When they left the theater, Patience said, “Thank you for that.”

“For what?”

“What you said in there. But I really don’t know why you lied.”

“It wasn’t a lie. You made the diagnosis of an ascending aortic dissection. We followed medical protocol from there. You did save that man’s life, Patience,” Alex said. Her pager buzzed at her hip. Dr. Guerrera needed her back on the unit. “I’ve got to go, okay?”

“Yeah, sure. Thanks,” Patience said. Alex simply nodded, turning and going through a door to the staircase, not waiting for the elevator. She didn’t see the small smile that grew on Patience’s face as she left.


End file.
